Tuesday, June 20, 2017

As aviation sector and its related infrastructure around the world is increasingly getting under the radar of terrorists, India will soon be implementing a unified command structure for the safety of its airports, airline and passengers. This will be on the lines of countries like US and others who have the same structure.

At present, the security system is airport specific and not centralised as should ideally be, claim the officials from ministry of civil aviation.

Jayant Sinha, civil aviation minister of state, in an aviation summit organised by IMC chamber of commerce and industry in Mumbai on Tuesday said that in India on certain airports the security is maintained by CRPF, while at most other airports it's the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which is mandated with the task. On few other airports local police are incharge for the same. " We are working with CISF on how to move forward in this regard" said Sinha.

The development comes after a similar concept was being mulled by the civil aviation ministry in 2010 to create a dedicated aviation security force (ASF) for the civil aviation airports across the country. An expert team of Consultants from UN backed International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was engaged in 2010 to study the restructuring of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and other aspects related to aviation security in India. However, the plan was later shelved.
21/06/17 Shahkar Abidi/DNA